John Paul

Details: In April of 1998, 51 year old divorced mother of two children Colleen Wood from Akron, Ohio to Boca Raton, Florida, which was part of her life-long dream, and she began working as an office manager of the Lighthouse Point Marina. In early 2000, Colleen met John Paul through a personal ad; he was a former professional race car driver and Wall Street wizard, and the two were inseparable. One evening Colleen shared her hopes and dreams of sailing around the world and was surprised and thrilled that John wanted to take her on a voyage around the world aboard the 55 foot schooner called the "Island Girl". Within a few weeks, Colleen had sold her condo and entrusted John with investing the net proceedings, $43,000, and a short time later, she moved onto the "Island Girl" with John and quit her job.

On December 3, 2000, Colleen called her son Michael in Ohio and told him that they were going to sail in a few weeks and that she would soon be in touch. Colleen's friend Maureen Canada said she spoke to Colleen about ten days later - December 13 or 14 - to invite her to the office Christmas party, and at the time Colleen was at a bar with John in Key West, and Maureen claimed that she sounded fine, but she never showed up at the party, nor did she contact her family over Christmas. After the New Year, her family and friends began to worry, so Michael called her cell phone and found that her account had been closed. He immediately contacted Florida police, but because no evidence a crime had been committed, they could do little. Michael went to the Internet in hopes of finding information about John Paul, and was shocked to discover that he had served 15 years in a federal penitentiary for attempted murder; he was a mastermind behind a drug-smuggling scheme in the eighties and tried to kill his partner for ratting them out. In 1999, John Paul was paroled and within less than a year, he had met Colleen. Paul's trip around the world was a violation of his parole and he is now wanted by authorities. They do not believe that Colleen knew about Paul's prior convictions.

Colleen Wood

Michael claims that Paul told different stories about his break-up with Colleen with different people: he told his daughter that Colleen had been irate over one of Paul's ex-girlfriends and ended the relationship. Michael pleaded with her to have Paul call him, and three days later he did with another version of the story. He said that the two had an argument and Colleen left the boat, and a few days later came back with her boyfriend and got the rest of her stuff. In April of 2001, four months after Colleen was last heard from, detectives were led to some suspicious activity on Colleen's credit cards. Between mid-December and mid-February, cash advancements totaling $40,000 had occurred on her credit cards. Investigators believe that Colleen did not make any of the transactions and that someone did against her consent. Also raising suspicion were two ads in the local newspaper that were placed under Colleen's name, using her credit cards and both were ordered by a male. The first ad ran in the "help wanted" section in early December, which was about a first mate on a boat and the second ad, in mid-December, ran and was in the personals "male seeking female" section. Detectives finally tracked down John Paul in May of 2001 and it was then where he gave another scenario about Colleen's breakup and disappearance: he and Colleen had a large fight over a debt that she owed him. Despite the inconsistencies, no solid evidence has been found to indicate that he was involved in Colleen's disappearance and he is not considered a suspect. Paul, after being questioned by detectives, left town, which is violation in terms of parole; detectives would also like to find him to question him in Colleen's disappearance. Neither Colleen Wood nor John Paul have ever been found.
John Paul is also considered a suspect in the 1981 disappearance of his first wife, Chalice Paul.Extra Notes: This case was first aired on August 9, 2002.Results: Wanted. Detectives first received tips that John Paul was in Montego Bay, Jamaica; however, he vanished before they could question him. In 2004, after the Unsolved Mysteries segment re-aired, a viewer recognized him as someone living in Fiji; he had since re-named the boat the Diamond Girl. However, because Fiji does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, authorities could do nothing. Since then, John Paul has been spotted in ports throughout Asia and Europe.
An acquaintance of John's was on his boat in while in Fiji in 2004 and was suspicious of him and his connections to Colleen. She managed to smuggle a laptop from the boat and give it to one of the detectives. It was later confirmed that the computer belonged to Colleen. Information on the computer helped the detectives determine how John Paul made some of the transactions with Colleen's account.
The last report that detectives have about John Paul's whereabouts was from 2009, when he and the boat were in Thailand. He intended to open a dive shop off the coast of Thailand. In 2011, John Paul reportedly sold the Diamond Girl. Colleen has never been located; John Paul is still considered a person of interest in the case. He has yet to return to the United States.
Paul is now 76 years old and has brown/gray hair. He is still wanted for parole violation. Authorities still want to re-question him in regards to Colleen's disappearance.Links: